Freedom in Machinery: Volume 2, Screw Theory Exemplified

This book explains what has become known as screw theory, and it deals by way of examples with the applications of this theory not only to the analysis and synthesis of mechanism in general, but also to the problems of real machine design. Because it is wholly three dimensional (and thus not easy to grasp when presented by means of mathematics alone), screw theory is presented here with the help of carefully drawn geometric figures which transport the reader directly into the three-dimensional domain. There are two important aspects of this book; it is firstly a fundamental work in the area of the kinetostatics of mechanism, which is a combination of the kinematics of the motions of and the statics of the forces between rigid bodies in contact. It is also a seminal work of importance for the mechanical design of robots, both the relatively simple robots of today and the much more versatile robots of the future.